29 Acacia Avenue | |
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Directed by | Henry Cass |
Written by | Denis and Mabel Constanduros (play) Muriel and Sydney Box (screenplay) |
Produced by | Sydney Box |
Starring | Gordon Harker Betty Balfour Jimmy Hanley Hubert Gregg Jill Evans Henry Kendall Dinah Sheridan Megs Jenkins Noele Gordon Guy Middleton |
Cinematography | Ernest Palmer Robert Huke |
Edited by | Julian Wintle |
Music by | Muir Mathieson (musical director) |
Production companies | Columbia British Productions Boca Productions |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures Corporation (United Kingdom) Oxford Films (United States) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 83 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £30,000 [1] or £45,000 [2] [3] |
29 Acacia Avenue is a play by Denis and Mabel Constanduros. [4] Its 1945 British comedy-drama film adaptation, directed by Henry Cass, [5] was released in the U.S. as The Facts of Love. [6]
Peter Robinson falls in love with the naïve country girl Fay and the worldly, wealthy and already-married Joan, and lives with them both (and Joan's husband) at his parents' house. However, one day Peter's parents unexpectedly return from holiday, and all hell breaks loose.
Allmovie wrote, "one of the few low-budget British programmers to enjoy a reasonably widespread American release...The film weaves three separate romantic subplots into an entertaining unified whole"; [7] though Sky Movies called the film "one wartime West End success that didn't transfer too well to screen, ending up embarrassingly stagey"; [8] but the Radio Times thought that although the film "fails to fully disguise its theatrical origins...it nevertheless makes for pleasant period entertainment, with particularly likeable performances from British veterans Gordon Harker and Betty Balfour as the parents." [9]
Olivia Joyce Compton was an American actress.
Ursula Jean McMinn, better known as Ursula Jeans, was an English film, stage, and television actress.
Betty Balfour was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness". She was best known to audiences for her Squibs series of films.
Easy Money is a 1948 British satirical film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Greta Gynt, Dennis Price and Jack Warner. It was written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the 1948 play of the same title by Arnold Ridley. It was released by Gainsborough Pictures.
Cluny Brown is a 1946 American romantic comedy film made by Twentieth Century-Fox starring Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones. It was directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch following a screenplay written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt based on the 1944 novel by Margery Sharp. The music score is by Cyril J. Mockridge. The film is a satire on the smugness of British high society and the last film Lubitsch completed before his death in 1947.
William Gordon Harker was an English stage and film actor.
Henry Cass was a British director, particularly prolific in film in the horror and comedy genres. Previously an actor, he was also a prolific stage director of classical theatre at the Old Vic in the 1930s.
Vote for Huggett is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Susan Shaw and Petula Clark. It was written by Mabel Constanduros, Denis Constanduros and Allan MacKinnon. In this, the third in the series of films about the Huggetts after Holiday Camp (1947) and Here Come the Huggetts (1948), Warner reprises his role as Joe Huggett, the head of a London family in the post-war years who decides to run as a candidate in the municipal election. It was followed by The Huggetts Abroad (1949).
The Huggetts are a fictional family who appear in a series of British films which were released in the late 1940s by Gainsborough Pictures. The films centre on the character of Joe Huggett, played by Jack Warner, the head of a working class London family. Along with the Gainsborough melodramas, the Huggett films proved popular and lucrative for the studio. All four films were directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Betty E. Box.
Holiday Camp is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Flora Robson, Jack Warner, Dennis Price, and Hazel Court, and also features Kathleen Harrison and Jimmy Hanley. It is set at one of the then-popular holiday camps. It resonated with post-war audiences and was very successful. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series.
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Saloon Bar is a 1940 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns. It was made by Ealing Studios and its style has led to comparisons with the later Ealing Comedies, unlike other wartime Ealing films which are different in tone. It is based on the 1939 play of the same name by Frank Harvey in which Harker had also starred. An amateur detective tries to clear an innocent man of a crime before the date of his execution.
Mabel Constanduros was an English actress, screenwriter and BBC Radio personality. She gained public notice playing Mrs.Buggins on the radio programme The Buggins Family, which ran from 1928 to 1948. As well as writing the series, she started off playing the whole family as well.
My Old Dutch is a 1934 British drama film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker, Michael Hogan and Florrie Forde. The film portrays the lives of Londoners during the First World War. The film was made at Islington Studios by Gainsborough Pictures. The film's sets were designed by Peter Proud. Bryan Edgar Wallace contributed to the screenplay, adapted from the stage play written by Arthur Shirley and also based on Albert Chevalier's famous song.
Things Happen at Night is a 1947 British supernatural ghost comedy film directed by Francis Searle and starring Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Robertson Hare and Garry Marsh. The film is based upon a stage play, The Poltergeist, by Frank Harvey. It was shot at Twickenham Studios. Despite the film's comparatively large budget it ended up being released as a second feature.
Squibs is a 1935 British musical romantic comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker and Stanley Holloway.
Her Favourite Husband is a 1950 British-Italian comedy film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Jean Kent, Robert Beatty and Margaret Rutherford. The screenplay was by Noel Langley, based on an adaptation by Stefano Vanzina, Mario Monicelli and Soldati of the 1947 play Quel bandito sono io! by Peppino De Filippo. The film's art direction was by Piero Gherardi.
Salute John Citizen is a 1942 black and white British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Edward Rigby, Mabel Constanduros and Jimmy Hanley. The Bunting family face up to the fortunes of war during the Second World War.
David Copperfield is a 1956 BBC Television adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1850 novel, serialised in 13 episodes. No recordings of this production are known to exist.
Radio Parade is a 1933 British musical comedy film directed by Richard Beville and Archie de Bear and featuring an ensemble cast including Florence Desmond, Claude Hulbert, Jeanne De Casalis and the comedy double act Clapham and Dwyer. A revue film, it was made by British International Pictures who had produced a similarly formatted film Elstree Calling in 1930. It contained many of the leading radio stars of the era. A further revue film Radio Parade of 1935 also followed.